Footnoting of a document such as a legal brief, book, manuscript, etc. is a well known technique of providing both uncluttered and smooth flowing information and thoughts, and background or supporting detail to a reader at different locations within the documents. The smooth flowing information is the body text of a document, and the supporting detail is made up of footnote text. In constructing such a document, efficient management has always been an elusive skill. This was so when documents were handwritten, and still presents a significant economic and throughput burden today. This is so even with the availability of flexible keyboard/display word processing systems.
During the handwritten document era, footnote number management was a major problem which required a great deal of writer attention. Simple numbering of footnote references and footnotes, standing alone, was fraught with problems. An author in referencing a footnote could readily apply an appropriate number to both a reference point and corresponding footnote if the number for a prior reference and footnote were recalled or on the same page. However, a loss of recollection and an absence of a prior same page number required either a note pad and pen or leafing through previously prepared pages. Obtaining a final inked copy with a minimum number of drafts required particular writer attention. Editing of inked copy was unacceptable, if not impossible. Paint and lift-off compositions are more modern day conveniences.
The above mentioned problems have not yet been suitably addressed. One system on the market today provides for footnote management upon printout. With this system, an operator can prepare a footnoted document in one pass, but particular operator attention is required. During preparation, body text is keyed to a body text frame up to a reference point, a footnote reference number is keyed, a footnote frame is called, a corresponding footnote number is keyed, text for the footnote is keyed, and then the body text frame is recalled. Body and footnote text are stored separately. The footnote text is stored in a footnote library for later recall. Following document preparation, there is an opportunity to separately review and edit the body and footnote text, but there is no opportunity to display review and edit an assembled document prior to printing. That is, the first opportunity an operator has to view an assembled document is following printing. During printout, the system merges the body and footnote text. On the whole, planning and multiple drafts are reduced, and preparation is in a logical manner. Even so, glaring editing disadvantages still exist. The most notable is that the ability to efficiently edit and/or make changes is severely restricted. An example of a result of a simple editing attempt is loss of correspondence between footnote reference numbers and footnote numbers if footnotes are to be added, intermingled, repositioned, etc. Inserting a reference number among existing reference numbers requires a subsequent additional operation for renumbering all following reference numbers. This is also the case for footnote numbers if a footnote is to be inserted or deleted. Another disadvantage is the above mentioned attention that is required of an operator. An error in either a footnote reference number or a footnote number can either prevent later document assembly during printout, or require additional editing and printout.
From the above, modern day keyboard/display word processing systems, although beneficial in many respects, have not been structured and/or programmed to efficiently handle even rather simple numbering problems. For one thing, many envisioned approaches to handling even mundane author desires required programming and/or structure additions which would be prohibitive from a cost standpoint. With this in mind, any thoughts of providing for different types of numbers such as Arabic numerals and graphic symbols, and intermixing these types of numbering, have quickly been abandoned. This fact has not been diminished in any respect when a desire to reset numbering on a chapter basis has been considered. When these considerations are coupled with the fact that separately stored body and footnote text must be brought together with a reasonable per page correspondence between footnote references and corresponding footnotes, there has been a compounding of the envisioned tasks and problems.
The above described capabilities of penmanship and word processing systems are prior art to the extent that a semblance of a desired end result can be laboriously achieved. What has not been achievable though, is the flexibility to efficiently both meet author desires and manage numbering tasks from input to output. It is these deficiencies which cause the prior art to fall short of either anticipating or rendering the instant invention obvious. More specifically, the instant invention presents an advance over prior art systems and techniques in that on-line footnote/body text preparation capabilities are provided, automatic system reference/footnote numbering and updating are provided during both input and editing, and a capability of displaying a page to be printed is provided.